Often, when we're creating a character and choosing their strengths and weaknesses, we look only at the big fears. These are the fears that are likely driving the plot or character arc and are central to the story. For example:
General fiction fears: Losing your job, your home, your children.
Romance fiction fears: Being alone, a cheating lover, meeting new people.
Fantasy fiction fears: Death of you or a loved one, a returning evil, the fate of the world.
The type of story typically determines the type of fear at the core of that story, but all of these central fears could apply to any story regardless of genre. They're all something readers can relate to no matter where the story is set.
But that's not the only fear we'll toss into the mix. Our characters will have both rational and irrational fears, personal quirks and phobias, past traumas or experiences that left a mark, and so on. Odds are, whoever the character is, there's a deliciously deep well of fear to drink from.
For example, being alone applies to everyone, as does losing things you care about, or having your "world" change in disastrous ways. A "returning evil" could be a dark lord from the Land of Guwen, or an old nemesis from high school who tormented you for four years. Losing a job, home, or child applies to the contemporary heroine as much as the fantasy hero or the romance couple.
Which is a ton of fun to write, and why fears are vital to great storytelling. Everyone has them, and they affect everyone differently.
Let's explore how we can use our characters' fears to write compelling fiction.
Fear Is a Fantastic Character Motivator
Basically, people act to get something they want or to avoid something they don't want. Fear and desire are at the center of everything we do.
Every story will have a goal and the protagonist will spend the story trying to achieve that goal. But it's also common in an early draft for the writer to not yet know why their protagonist is risking heart and soul to achieve that goal, and the story flounders.
Look at the protagonist (and/or the other characters) and ask:
What are they afraid of in this story? In this scene? Fears affect the story in many ways, so you'll have big, plot-driving fears and small scene-advancing ones. You'll also have fears that affect the character arc or internal conflict. In pivotal scenes, you'll probably have multiple fears working against one another to create the most conflict.
Why don't they want this to happen? If the goal is to avoid something, there's a reason, and it should be more than, "because the plot says so" in some way. Failure matters.
Or...Why do they want it to happen? If the goal is to achieve or cause something, how will this benefit the protagonist? How will this avoid or alleviate a fear?
How does the motivate them to behave? The fear in the scene will cause the protagonist to behave in a way that affects the plot, story, and/or character arc. Even if that fear causes them not to act, such as a scared romance protagonist being too afraid to talk to the love interest and missing a chance at love.
If the protagonist isn't afraid of something in every scene, that's a red flag there's nothing at stake. Low to missing stakes usually leads to a meh story that might be well written, but readers find themselves not caring about the characters or the outcome of the plot.
Fear Helps Our Readers Understand What's at Stake
One of the toughest questions a writer can get is from readers asking, "Why should I care about your characters and your story?" Stakes are a big reason why. This is why we see a ton of underdog stories about the little guy succeeding over the big guy, but very few about the successful folks winning yet again.
No one cares about winners who always win. We want to see the struggle not to lose.
What does your protagonist have to lose? They should risk something by getting involved or acting in whatever way the story needs them to, even if it's small. It could be something physical, such as a risk of injury, or emotional, such as a hit to their confidence, or major, such as their life or happiness. If there's no consequence for failing, there are no stakes.
What will this cost them? If they fail in a scene, what happens? If they fail in the story, what happens? On the flip side, how does success in the scene affect them? Winning could demand a price just as easily as losing if the victory comes at the expense of a best friend or moral principle.
If there's nothing at stake, that could be a red flag there's not enough conflict in the story, or the goal isn't personal enough for the protagonist. Remember--without conflict, there is no story.
Fear Gives Us Emotional Layers to Plot with
Since fears can be both rational and irrational, they're great tools to plot with. The desire for a goal drives the plot forward, while fear creates conflicts internally as well as externally to make achieving that goal a challenge. Phobias and past experiences might cause a character to behave irrationally in a critical situation and send the story in an unexpected direction.
Where can you force your protagonist to face their fears? A great way to add conflict to a scene is to put the protagonist up against something they're afraid of. Not only do they have the external problem to deal with, it's compounded by the fear factor. It also offers potential scene settings that could play off those fears, such as a fear of heights, the dark, or social situations. Making the protagonist uncomfortable adds tension and keeps things unpredictable for readers.
Where can the protagonist's fears make them fail? Sometimes you need the protagonist to fail without them looking like an idiot. Fear can give the protagonist a plausible reason to mess up without looking incompetent. This is also a great tool to cause a failure where readers least expect it.
How might the protagonist's fear cause them to struggle? For stories with strong character arcs, fear is vital, because it creates that necessary struggle to overcome a problem. Struggling is good, as it makes readers care more about the characters they like and causes them to root for them. A lack of struggling suggests a lack of conflict, which could mean the characters are just acting out the plot and not truly driving the story.
If there are no emotional layers or struggles to be found, that could be a red flag for unengaged characters that are just doing what the plot tells them to do. For highly plot-driven stories, such as thrillers or procedurals, this might not be an issue, but for more emotional stories, such as romances or contemporary fiction, it hints at a serious problem.
Fear might not be fun in real life, but it's a wonderful tool to use in a story. It rounds out a character, causes them to act, and shows why acting is important to the overall tale. It binds a story together and weaves through the plot, subplots, character arcs, and even theme to tell a tale readers will lose themselves in.
What are your characters afraid of?
How does that fear influence the story?
Check out my newest book, Understanding Conflict (And What It Really Means), an in-depth guide to how to use conflict in your fiction.
Today Seekerville is giving away an ecopy of Understanding Conflict (And What It Really Means) to one writer. And if you are a reader joining us today, we have a $10.00 Amazon gift card. Winner announced in the Weekend Edition.
Janice Hardy is the award-winning author of the fantasy trilogy, The Healing Wars, and multiple books on writing, including Understanding Show, Don't Tell (And Really Getting It), Planning Your Novel: Ideas and Structure and Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft. She's also the founder of the writing site, Fiction University, and a frequent speaker at writing conferences across the country. For more advice and helpful writing tips, visit her at www.fiction-university.com or @Janice_Hardy.
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